This week, in the US, Campbell Soup Co. announced it would back proposed plans for blanket GMO labelling in the country, while General Mills announced its second acquisition in recent weeks, this time of meat snacks firm Epic Provisions. The industry also reacted to the release of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Elsewhere, Ukraine hit back on a product embargo enforced by Russia, Danish Crown said jobs could be lost in the UK and we spoke to Urban Fresh Foods about its sale to Lotus Bakeries.
“Campbell is optimistic a federal solution can be established in a reasonable amount of time if all the interested stakeholders cooperate. However, if that is not the case, Campbell is prepared to label all of its US products for the presence of ingredients that were derived from GMOs, not just those required by pending legislation in Vermont. The company would seek guidance from the FDA and approval by USDA” – Campbell Soup Co. backs plans for mandatory GMO labelling in the US.
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“Russia consistently, on a daily basis, is taking steps aimed at limiting Ukrainian exports to the Russian Federation, which extremely damages the Ukrainian economy and the main thing – this violates multilateral and bilateral agreements between Ukraine and the Russian Federation” – Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk comments as Ukraine plans to introduce a ban on a number of Russian food items in retaliation to restrictions on its own products enforced by Moscow on 1 January.
“The acquisition of Epic positions General Mills for exciting growth with a highly authentic brand in an entirely new natural snacking category. A purpose-driven brand like Epic perfectly aligns with the experience and capabilities set that Annie’s brings to the table. Epic has tremendous potential for growth in the natural snacking category” – John Foraker, the president of General Mills’ Annie’s unit, on the US group’s acquisition of meat snacking firm Epic Provisions.
“They were our lead choice. It was more about who’s going allow us to continue to run Bear as it is today. If somebody tries to take us into a mother ship it’s not going to work for us” – Urban Fresh Foods partner Giles Brook speaks to just-food about the acquisition of the Bear snacks maker by Lotus Bakeries.
“Over the past few years we have endeavoured to simplify and increase the efficiency of our operations in Sweden. These divestments will further strengthen our focus on our core businesses” – Göran Holm, EVP for HKScan’s consumer business in Scandinavia, after the Finnish meat group announces it is selling off its slaughterhouse businesses in Sweden to focus on core activities in the market.
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By GlobalData“After having examined submitted documents, and based on all the facts arising from the content of the notification, [the] Commission has found that by implementation of notified concentration, Imlek would strengthen its position in the market for purchase of raw cow’s milk, production and sales of milk and dairy products, since Imlek and Nis Dairy are direct competitors, and that Imlek is the strongest participant in the relevant market” – Serbia’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Imlek’s move to acquire fellow Serbian dairy group Niska Mlekara.
“Due to the intense market competition of the chocolate industry in mainland China and the lack of economic scale of the group’s confectionery business, the management expects that the loss-making confectionery business may not be able to turn around in the near future” – China Foods announces the sale of its “loss-making” confectionery business.
“The main reasons behind this decision are [the] significant depreciation of sites, low profitability and [the] decrease of sales volume, which is no more compatible with the level of investments required to upgrade these facilities as per new criteria of quality and environmental safety assurance” – Danone announces it is to end production at two plants in Russia in the first quarter of 2016.
“The result of the proposed change is that approximately 430 positions at Bodmin are now at risk of redundancy” – a reshuffle of its cooked meat operations mean 430 jobs could go at Danish Crown’s UK arm Tulip’s Bodmin plant.
